What can you have on forms?
Most Web sites will include one or more pages which require details from the user. Typically, such pages will provide the following kinds of form fields
- text boxes for you to type text into
- drop down lists for you to choose items from
- 'radio buttons' for you to choose between alternatives
- check boxes for you to tick as many as you want
- a submit button to send the information in the form to the web server
- a reset button to clear the form if the user makes a mistake filling the form in
The appearance and use of these fields is summarised in the table below:
| Input box - one line by any number of characters. Good for e-mail addresses, lines of the postal address and so on. | |
| Scrolling text box - as many characters wide and lines tall as you want but won't wrap the text at the end of the line. | |
| Allows a long list of choices to be accommodated in a small amount of space. Multiple or single choices can be specified. | |
| Radio buttons with the same group name will force the user to select one choice. | |
| Check boxes are for when you want to chose as many as you want. Click again to clear the check mark. | |
| Mandatory on all forms to send the information. You can change the label to give the form a more friendly name like 'send'. | |
| Useful - allows users to wipe all their input and start again without re-loading the page. |
